Why should you try my dad's recipe?
Because my dad's made this dish thousands of times (literally!) over his 50+ year career as a Chinese chef. And now, you get to learn all of his tips and techniques.
I know you'll love it as much as our community does - this recipe video has over 285.3K views and 6.1K likes on YouTube!
Love from our community
@knightsofneeech
Wow thank you for a wonderful instructional. Your dad is inspiring as always. I also want to especially thank you for all of the links in the description. You go above and beyond with the indexing, etc. It is appreciated
@celineng8703
Your dad made me wants to be a chef... Thank U for all his videos. Great job...
@somchitkudeeratana236
Love your dad cooking video, thank you for sharing.
Watch on YouTube
Meet your chef, Daddy Lau
50+ Years of Experience
My dad's been cooking Chinese food for over 50+ years, as a chef, restaurant owner, and loving father.
Meet our family
2x James Beard Awards
We won TWO James Beard Awards for our endeavors in teaching and preserving Cantonese cuisine.
Read more
Over 2.5M+ Followers
My dad is the internet's favorite Chinese chef, teaching millions of people how to cook every month.
Watch our videos
Homemade Fish Balls (魚丸)
This fish ball recipe was originally part of our longer series on doing Hot Pot at Home, and I felt like it deserved its own blog post, so here we are.
If you're new to fish balls, this is an extremely popular type of recipe with a ton of different names and variations throughout Asia and parts of Europe.
The foundation of this recipe is essentially creating a great fish paste. From there, usually, you'll find these rolled up into balls, which you can deep fry and lather in sauce, or boil them in soups or hot pots. Instead of rolling them into balls, you can also flatten them into patties and pan-fry them, which my dad does quite often.
Most Asian grocery stores sell pre-made fishballs, but this is a great way to customize your own healthy version at home.
Ingredients
Prep
30 minutes
Total
60 minutes
Share
Use our magic wand to update this recipe!
Main Ingredients
- 8 oz tilapia fish fillets
- 2 oz shrimp (size 31-35)
Fish Ball Flavors (default for ~10 oz of fish/shrimp)
- 4 piece cilantro
- 4 piece green onion
- ginger (3-4 thin slices, minced)
- dried mandarin orange peel (rehydrated, use about 1 square inch)
- 0.50 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp chicken bouillon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 egg
- 5 tbsp water
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp olive oil
Want a deeper dive into how to craft traditional, authentic Cantonese flavors?
Understanding Flavor
Learn how to recreate the Cantonese flavors you love by demystifying and mastering a handful of core, traditional ingredients
Buying fish from sustainable sources
It’s important to at least be aware of how we can support sustainable methods and sources of fish.
While it might not always be feasible to shop in this way, as consumers, an easy way to do our part is by making sure we vote with our wallets.
Monterey Bay Aquarium in California runs a free website called “Seafood Watch” which has a ton of recommendations on how to choose and purchase seafood in ways that have the least environmental impact.
Finding Asian Ingredients
Some of these ingredients are hard to find in a typical grocery store.
If you don't live near an Asian market, most or all of what my dad uses in this recipe can be found on Amazon:
I've also included some other Chinese kitchen essentials, used in many of my dad's other recipes.
- Koon Chun Hoisin Sauce
- Michiu Rice Cooking Wine
- Pearl River Bridge Superior Light Soy Sauce
- Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce
- Lao Gan Ma Chili Oil
- Pearl River Bridge Superior Dark Soy Sauce
- Shaoxing Cooking Wine
- Chinese Sausage - Lap Cheung
- Dried Shrimp
- Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (soak for 15-20 minutes in warm water before slicing)
- Dried Wood Ear Fungus (a few options, depending on what's in stock):
These links are affiliate links, which means that if you use our links to purchase these ingredients, Amazon pays my family a small amount for the sale - at no extra cost to you. If you use these links, we really appreciate the support!
Instructions
Prep
30 minutes
Total
60 minutes
Share
Use our magic wand to update
this recipe!
Help Shape Our Cookbook!
We're writing a cookbook! It won't be available until 2027, but sign up now to get weekly tips and videos from our cookbook development.
Step 1: Cut, mince, flatten fish
We'll start by finely mincing our tilapia (2 oz). Beat it down with the blunt edge of our knife to flatten it. Repeat this 1-2 more times to tenderize the fish. We want this to be as tender and paste-like as possible.
The actual amount and type of fish are up to you! My dad just used tilapia because it was readily available at the time.
If you have a food processor, feel free to use it!
Step 2: Cut, mince, flatten shrimp
Just like our fish, we'll finely mince our shrimp (0.20 oz).
Beat it down with the blunt edge of our knife to flatten it. Repeat this 1-2 more times to tenderize the shrimp. We want this to be as tender and paste-like as possible.
As with the fish, the actual amount and type of shrimp are up to you! You can also just make this with shrimp, or skip the shrimp entirely.
Step 3: Mix fish & shrimp
With the blunt side of our knife, spatula, paddle, etc, we'll mix the tilapia and shrimp together, and flatten it. Make sure to do this thoroughly.
Step 4: Chop greens, ginger, orange peel
We'll finely chop some cilantro (4 piece), green onion (4 piece).
We'll also be mincing about 1 square inch of a rehydrated dried orange peel, and 3-4 slices of ginger.
Step 5: Create flavors
Mix salt (1 tsp), sugar (1 tsp), white pepper (0.50 tsp), chicken bouillon (1 tsp), egg, cornstarch (3 tbsp), and water (5 tbsp) in a bowl.
Step 6: Mix everything together, add oils
Add the fish paste and greens to the bowl, and mix thoroughly for 2-3 minutes.
Add sesame oil (1 tsp), olive oil (1 tsp), mix for another 30-60 seconds.
Step 7: Slam the fish paste
This is a traditional technique - we'll take clumps of fish paste and slam it down on the bowl.
This helps increase the pliability of the fish paste.
Step 8: Refrigerate & cook
Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes
When it comes time to eat, we have a bunch of options:
- Hot pot style: Scoop up a ball of fish paste with a spoon, and then dunk it in the hot pot. It will be ready to eat in a little under a minute - soft, chewy, tender goodness and all.
- Deep fry: Heat up a high smoke point oil (like corn oil) and deep fry the fish balls for ~1 minute at 175C, 350F. Dip in your favorite sauce
- Sauté: Flatten the fish balls into little patties, and pan-fry each side for 2-3 minutes.
Master Cantonese cooking from the ground up
Develop the intuition and foundation to cook Cantonese food with exclusive classes from a master chef.
Explore all masterclassesFrequently Asked Questions
Enjoy!
I have so many memories of eating this with my family.
Now, hopefully, you can create your own memories with this tradition with your loved ones.
Cheers, and thanks for cooking with us!
Feel free to comment below if you have any questions about the recipe.
More Recipes
泡麵版炒麵
Chow Mein, with Instant Noodles
萬用炒醬
Universal Stir Fry Sauce
牛肉炒飯
Beef Fried Rice
雞湯
Easy Chicken Broth
Made with love ❤️
We started Made With Lau to celebrate Cantonese culture and honor the legacy of our wonderful parents, Jenny and Chung Sun Lau.
Our hope is that these recipes and stories help you spread the joy, love, and nostalgia that I felt growing up.